There was no immediate official casualty toll but in a sign of the gravity of the situation Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu broke off a trip to Konya to watch a national football game and summoned an emergency security meeting in Ankara. Militants staged a mine attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in the Daglica district of Hakkari, a known PKK stronghold.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted to the attack during a live television interview but also did not give any casualty figures. "A mine attack has been staged. There will be a very particular and decisive fight there. We are very sad," he said.

"The weather conditions were unfavorable. A struggle was being waged under such conditions," he said, adding the attack happened during a 'clean-up operation' against PKK militants.

The PKK has been staging daily attacks against the Turkish armed forces as the military presses an over month long operation against the group in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at assisting the search for a final peace deal to end the PKK's three decade insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.